Celebrating 2011 & looking forward to 2012

I had the opportunity of catching up with staff at Mitcham Council today to discuss all aspects of the LMS roll out.  While busily looking towards the LMS roll out for 2012, I think it is also important to look back to 2011 & celebrate what we have achieved.

It has taken us 9 months to go from an RFP in the market to a signed contract for a State-wide consortium.  This is quite a remarkable achievement given that we are doing this on behalf of 68 very diverse councils across the State.  

And to get an understanding of the magnitude of what we have achieved, it is interesting to note that SirsiDynix states that once we have completed our roll out we will be within their top 10 largest public library customers & top 20 all time customers.

We've come a long way this year, with councils representing over 50% of the State's population ready to join the consortium - subject to final contract details.  And the list of councils "ready for 2012/13" continues to grow!  We're over-subscribed for the next 18 months, but we will ensure that we have the resources to meet roll out expectations.

As the year closes out I would like to pay tribute to our partners the LGA, given their preparedness to take on contract ownership for the LMS.  I would also like to thank the 120+ library staff who have been involved in the project to date.  The amount of good will and positive energy focused on this project has exceeded my expectations and has made sure that the project will be a success.

We are deep into system configuration, rule setting and sorting through network set ups, along with the development of the contracts between each council and the LGCS.

I look forward to being able to provide the "early adopters" with certainty and a contract which will provide certainty as we go forward by the end of January.

So 2012 will see PLS managing a team of staff focused on LMS roll-out while also 

• upgrading the State-wide telecommunications network, 
• driving the National Year of Reading, 
• looking at the outcomes of the review into library services in remote areas, 
• gearing up for commencing the P2 replacement, and 
• many other issues

And we look forward to working with all staff in the State's public libraries to improve services for our 900,000+ customers.